::saad::

The Reading Corner: The Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz

saad@docisland.org — 2008-11-02T21:47:59+01:00

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that we have far more choices than needed in this consumerist world. We experience it everyday when we need and/or want to buy something, be it a new pair of trousers, furnitures or cereals. And personally, I don't see what this 230+ pages book brings to the topic. The author would have been really helpful had he extracted the gist of his book and produced instead a 10 pages article. My expectations were really high for this Business Week Top Ten Book Of The Year winner. I hoped there will be at least some kind of discussion on the real reasons why we have so many choices in life. There are at least an obvious potential one and that is the way Capitalism is implemented. However, the author sticks to the idea that choice means freedom and the more choices we have, the freer we are but this comes at a cost and we should reason ourselves to stick with "good enough" and not seek "the best" to avoid insatisfaction and sadness. This is not my conception of freedom.

Le Coin Cheminée : Un Sur Deux, par Steve Mosby

saad@docisland.org — 2008-11-16T19:43:29+01:00

Lorsque j'ai eu ce livre entre les mains, je l'ai posé dans un coin de ma bibliothèque horrifié que j'étais par la comparaison faite (par le département Marketing je suppose) avec un ouvrage monumental tel que Le Silence des Agneaux. J'ai craint d'être déçu et déçu je fus après m'être décidé à le lire bien des mois après l'avoir reçu en cadeau. Bien que l'idée du tueur en série diabolique cherchant à mettre à l'épreuve l'amour de deux êtres puisse paraître séduisante, elle est bien mal servie par l'auteur. La logique et l'enchaînement des "faits" laissent beaucoup à désirer. Des répétitions inutiles apparaissent ici et là, insultant presque l'intelligence du lecteur. Et la fin laisse un goût amer dans la bouche, comme si on nous avait promis monts et merveilles mais on se retrouve malheureusement avec un mauvais jeu de ni vu, ni connu je t'embrouille. Les ficelles sont grossières, le style est souvent confus et la comparaison avec Le Silence des Agneaux est tout simplement ridicule. Peut-être s'agit-il d'un problème de traduction ?

Le Coin Cheminée : Je N'ai Pas Peur, par Niccolo Ammaniti

saad@docisland.org — 2008-11-21T11:48:08+01:00

L'auteur nous invite à partager quelques moments de vie d'un hameau perdu dans la campagne italienne. Cette vie aurait pu être monotone, plate et sans intérêt si nous excluons la beauté des champs de blé. C'est loin d'être le cas, tel que nous le conte Michele, un enfant de 9 ans. Des événements marquants essaieront d'ôter une partie de l'innocence de notre narrateur. Mais réussiront-ils ? Est-ce que la cruauté du monde des adultes vont venir à bout de cette tendresse, de cette vision simple que nous sentons très présentes dans les pensées de ce si jeune petit homme ? Je vous invite à lire ce livre, je ne pense pas que vous le regretterez.

La Belle et La Trompette Eclectique

saad@docisland.org — 2008-10-27T21:10:39+01:00

Il est des jours où une succession d’événements vous entrouvre les portes du Paradis. Ce soir, j’y suis au Paradis. Musical le Paradis, si je dois vraiment le qualifier. Ce n’est guère la première fois que j’y séjourne, fort heureusement ! Sinon, ma vie ne serait pas aussi riche qu’elle ne l’est aujourd’hui. J’y suis entré cette fois-ci de manière assez surprenante. Ne trépignez point d’impatience, prenez votre temps. Mettez une bonne musique reposante et relaxante. Prenez place, je m’en vais vous conter une belle histoire.

Belle. Oui c’est ainsi que cela a commencé. Equipé de mon fidèle lecteur de musique portatif, les yeux plongés dans un livre assez agréable à lire, je rentrais chez moi. J’étais dans ce train au nom mystérieux mais dont le mystère disparaît dès qu’on y met les pieds. Vous savez, le RER ! Ah les acronymes. Souvent ils cachent la misère et font tout de suite sérieux, pompeux, scientifique ! Je m’égare. Donc j’étais une personne parmi tant d’autres dans ce lieu fort convivial et chaleureux. A un moment, j’ai senti une présence et j’ai levé les yeux pour voir de qui il pouvait s’agir. C’était une jeune demoiselle. Belle. Non, pas vraiment belle. Elle avait certes du charme mais elle avait ce petit quelque chose qui attire l’attention et qui vous donne envie de sourire. Rayonnante, je dirais. Voilà, c’est bien le mot que je cherchais. Elle n’arborait pas cette figure maussade, si chère à bon nombre des personnes que je croisais quotidiennement dans ce train ou un autre. La voir ainsi, rayonnante, contente d’être là, simplement, me donna envie de sourire et je ne sais pas pour quelle raison, ces trois mots me vinrent à l’esprit : Belle de nuit. Un titre de l’album de The Walk of The Giant Turtle dont l’auteur n’est autre que cet immense joueur de trompette au son si typique, j’ai nommé Monsieur Erik Truffaz. Au moment où ces mots se sont matérialisés dans mon esprit, j’étais entrain d’écouter la musique d’Erin Bode, une chanteuse dotée d’une voix fort agréable. Ayant un grand respect pour la bonne musique, j’ai laissé cette chère Erin finir son morceau avant de faire la succession d’opérations nécessaires pour lancer Belle de nuit, un titre très agréable à écouter ceci dit en passant.

Erik accompagna mes pas ensuite jusqu’à mon domicile où j’ai retrouvé ma petite famille. J’ai du donc laisser Erik de côté. Peut-être pour le trajet demain matin pensais-je. Mais la vie vous réserve souvent des surprises. Le dernier numéro de Jazzman m’attendait sagement sur la table du séjour, m’invitant à l’ouvrir. Ce que je fis car en voyant une superbe photo en noir et blanc d’Art Blakey sur la couverture, la tentation fut trop grande pour y résister. C’est ainsi que je me suis retrouvé à lire la rubrique sur les disques du mois et quelle ne fut ma surprise d’apprendre que le sieur Truffaz avait non seulement sorti 3 albums en même temps mais qu’un des albums était un Choc Jazzman du mois ! Vite, de quoi s’agit-il ? Je me suis empressé de trouver la page qui décrivait ces 3 pépites et ce que j’y ai lu m’emplit d’une joie immense, dans l’expectative d’écouter l’oeuvre du plus éclectique parmi les trompettistes du Jazz. C’est ainsi que je me suis retrouvé à écrire ce billet, en écoutant le triptyque élaboré sous forme de voyage sonore où chaque album a sa propre identité, très différente des autres : Paris, Benares et Mexico.

Paris, où le groove immense d’un Sly Johnson (des Saïan Supa Crew, déjà entendu récemment dans le dernier album de Camille) côtoie cette magnifique trompette. Géniale « beatbox » humaine, Sly Johnson n’a rien à envier à un monstre du genre. Bobby Mc Ferrin bien sûr !

Benares, où l’on retrouve un son envoûtant et mystique avec des voix pénétrantes et de magnifiques tablas.

Mexico enfin où on ne croirait pas un instant que nous sommes dans l’univers d’un Truffaz si on n’avait pas vu son nom figurer sur la jaquette, tellement la signature sonore est proche de celle d’un Nils Petter Molvaer, notamment à travers son sublime album Khmer, un vrai ovni dans la constellation Jazz apparu il y a quelques années chez ECM.

S’il y a bien une chose que j’adore dans la Musique, c’est l’éclectisme et l’invitation à l’ouverture et au partage. Le triptyque d’Erik Truffaz représente tout à fait cela. Des albums avec des ambiances particulières, tellement différentes, et qui traduisent un vrai esprit d’ouverture chez cet artiste dont je suis les aventures musicales depuis le début de ce siècle et que j’ai eu la chance de voir deux fois en concert. Et c’est grâce à lui si j’éprouve un tel bonheur ce soir. La Musique a cet effet sur moi. Elle s’infiltre dans les interstices de mon âme et libère ces choses qu’on appelle émotions, vous savez bien ... je parle de ces choses qui font de nous des êtres humains. Et je dois avouer que j’ai de la chance de pouvoir écouter une telle musique. La dernière fois où j’ai mis les pieds au Paradis Musical, c’était grâce (encore une fois !) à ce cher Avishai Cohen. J’ai assisté à son concert du 16 octobre au Bataclan.

Parisiens, si vous n’avez rien programmé, venez donc voir Benares en Live le 02 avril prochain au Café de la Danse et Paris (avec Sly Johnson) le 3 avril à La Maroquinerie. J’ai déjà réservé mes billets et si nous nous y croisons, faites-moi signe, nous irons savourer une boisson ensemble !

Et pour finir, je tiens à remercier la jeune demoiselle dans le train. Rayonnante inconnue, sans toi je n’aurais peut-être pas passer une si bonne soirée.

Thievery Corporation Frappe Fort avec Radio Retaliation

saad@docisland.org — 2008-10-04T22:38:26+02:00

J’ai découvert la Musique de Thievery Corporation en 2001 grâce à un collègue de travail qui est depuis devenu un de mes meilleurs amis (nobz, tu te reconnaîtras). A l’époque, si mes souvenirs sont bons, j’étais encore réticent et dubitatif face à cet engouement pour l’Electro. C’était sans compter sur l’énorme musicalité (si si) de Thievery Corporation qui a réussi (avec The Herbalizer notamment) à briser mes réticences et me permettre d’élargir mes horizons en tant que passionné de musiques.

Ce groupe (ou plutôt duo) américain a une signature sonore unique facilement reconnaissable. Il suffit de lancer un de leurs titres pour tout de suite sentir ce groove un peu chaloupé qui constitue la base de leur oeuvre. Bien qu’on case souvent leur Musique dans la catégorie « Electro », elle est avant tout éclectique. Après l’excellent The Cosmic Game, ils viennent de frapper très fort avec Radio Retaliation, certainement un des meilleurs albums que j’ai écouté cette année.

Ce n’est pas tant l’innovation ou l’originalité qui me poussent à écrire des mots aussi forts à propos de cet album mais parce qu’il traduit parfaitement ce que j’attends de la Musique en tant qu’auditeur : une ouverture et du partage.

Ouverture d’abord parce qu’on retrouve du Reggae, du Dancehall, du Hip-Hop, de l’Afrobeat de la musique latine, de la Soul, de la musique hindoue et de la musique orientale dans cet album ! Le tout constituant un ensemble très homogène grâce à la signature sonore si unique et l’habillage Electro de Thievery Corporation.

Partage car ils ont invité des artistes de haut vol sur cet album : Seu Jorge, Anoushka Shankar, Femi Kuti, ou Sleepy Wonder. On pourrait craindre légitimement une « soupe » mondialisée et mondialisante mais c’est loin d’être le cas. Radio Retaliation est aussi un album politiquement engagé. Il n’y a qu’a écouter par exemple Vampires avec Femi Kuti, Radio Retaliation (la chanson) avec Sleepy Wonder, ou Forgotten People.

Quelques liens utiles :

Away and Back

saad@docisland.org — 2008-10-01T11:47:51+02:00

Almost a month since I posted something on this blog. Work went crazy with people coming back from vacation and some interesting (and time-consuming) I.T. security issues that I needed to handle very quickly. Nonetheless, I took the time to go on holidays with my little family and a couple of friends during the last week of September (well more like ten days actually). We’ve been to Corsica. This was the second time I went there (the first time was in 2004).

I enjoyed it a lot. The weather was OK (I was in short sleeve t-shirt mode almost all the time) and the sea’s water temperature was very fine. In the moutains, the water was very cold though but I managed to swim everywhere I could find a nice spot ;-). We visited Bonifacio, Bastia, Porto-Vecchio (which I don’t really recommend for sight-seeings), Bavella ... and we’ve been to some awesome beaches (Rondinara, Palombaggia).

Keziah Jones Reaches New Heights With Nigerian Wood

saad@docisland.org — 2008-09-02T11:19:18+02:00

It’s only been two days that I added Nigerian Wood, Keziah Jones’ latest release, to my Music collection. And I must admit that I like it very much.

After listening to My Kinda Girl, the single that was released this summer, I was afraid that I wouldn’t enjoy the new album. My Kinda Girl is about a fine tune but not the kind of Music that I really enjoy and that I came to expect from this artist. I really dig his previous release, Black Orpheus. But I put aside my initial worries and bought a ticket for his concert in Olympia, Paris this November. This guy is a real showman as far as I can tell from a DVD of a concert he gave a few years ago in Paris.

Yesterday morning was my first exposure to Nigerian Wood. I listened to it while commuting and I really enjoyed it overall. So far, I dig the following songs: Nigerian Wood (same title as the album and also the opening song, with a wonderful mixture of Funk and Soul), Beautifulblackbutterfly (the drums are really great on this one), In Love Forever (kind of standard Pop-ish Keziah style, so enjoyable), and Long Distance Love (the drums are, again, just perfect and their Hip-hopish beats fits greatly with the otherwise Soulish tone of the song).

If you want to sample these songs, they are available on Deezer:

Un SPAM Fort Sympathique

saad@docisland.org — 2008-08-19T15:35:32+02:00

Pour une fois que je reçois un SPAM fort sympathique, bien écrit (bon les accents manquents mais c’est une broutille n’est-ce pas ?), bien formaté et crédible, je me suis dit que j’allais le partager et ne pas le garder pour moi comme un vil égoïste. Même les liens pointent vers les URLs dont ils portent le “nom” !

Sébastien, qui que tu sois derrière ce prénom, je ne te connais pas mais merci quand même pour ta délicate attention. Le seul hic c’est que je ne suis pas franchement amateur de montres.

Les Bons Restos Parisiens : Gabriela

saad@docisland.org — 2008-08-09T10:34:12+02:00

Jeudi dernier, j’étais de sortie avec des collègues et betabug (actuellement en visite à Paris). Nous avons bu quelques verres avant de nous diriger vers Gabriela, un restaurant brésilien suggéré par un de mes collègues.

Dès notre arrivée, j’ai été très agréablement surpris par l’ambiance très chaleureuse de l’endroit et les sourires radieux du personnel. Ca m’a rappelé par certains côtés quelques restaurants populaires du Maroc que j’avais l’habitude de fréquenter lorsque j’étais étudiant. De la bonne musique brésilienne qui sent le soleil et la fraîcheur renforçait ce sentiment de chaleur donné par la décoration. Le volume était idéal pour apprécier la musique sans empêcher la discussion entre convives.

Nous étions assis de telle façon que nous pouvions voir la cuisine, séparée par un petit comptoir du reste de la salle. Y officiaient deux “chefs”, genre force tranquille. L’un deux m’a rappelé je ne sais pour quelle raison John Bull et son excellent show culinaire John Bull’s Reggae Kitchen (à voir d’urgence !). Une petite sonnette au bruit agréable était installée sur le comptoir pour signaler aux serveurs que des plats sont prêts à être servis.

La carte est sympathique et variée : viande blanche, rouge, poissons, porc, crevettes ... Grand fan de poissons, je n’ai pas longtemps hésité pour prendre un bar grillé avec une garniture à base de riz et de manioc. Je n’ai vraiment pas regretté mon choix ! Succulent ! Mes collègues et betabug semblaient aussi très enchantés par leurs plats. En dessert, j’ai pris une préparation à base d’açaï, un petit fruit amazonien qui pousse dans un palmier du nord du Brésil, l’açayer, de bananes et de muesli. C’était très frais et très bon. Ce fruit serait riche en fer et en anti-oxydants, rien de mieux pour joindre l’utile à l’agréable !

En conclusion, j’ai passé une excellente soirée. Je vous recommande donc vivement ce restaurant. Attention, il n’ouvre que le soir en semaine et le week-end, il est ouvert samedi matin mais avec un choix de plats réduits. Si vous êtes sur Paris, vous pouvez même vous faire livrer. Et le site Web du restaurant est une vraie réussite. Inutile de vous dire qu’il est fortement recommandé de réserver.

Gabriela, 3, Rue Milton, 75009 Paris. Téléphone : 01 42 80 28 14.

Avishai's Gently Disturbed Reviewed by AAJ

saad@docisland.org — 2008-08-08T21:53:58+02:00

Andrew Velez has reviewed Gently Disturbed by Avishai Cohen Trio for All About Jazz (AAJ). You should definitely read this excellent review.

Quoting him:

[...] their sophisticated ways tantalize and require attentive, open ears.

I can’t say it any better. These guys truly have some incredible alchemy going on. I’ve already written about their New Morning concert a few weeks ago. And I keep listening to their album and every time I discover something new and gain deeper understanding of their Music. Quoting Andrew again:

Gently Disturbed is a blend of melody, groove, complexity and simplicity that is beyond definition.

Beyond definition!

I.T. Security: "Big Is The New Small" Redux

saad@docisland.org — 2008-08-05T16:24:53+02:00

Mike Rothman, the man behind Security Incite, has posted yet another excellent post on his blog called Revisiting Big is The New Small. It is an excellent piece loaded with sharp insight and a very good sense of humor.

Anyone interested in the security market and how people contend with nonsensical sales pitch from the security vendors while all they want is good enough security (which doesn’t mean that this is an ideal situation) from big companies should definitely read that post. Here are some chosen quotes:

[...] the original concept behind Big is the New Small is that customers were tired of dealing with crappy little vendors. They'd much rather deal with bloated, unresponsive, lumbering vendors.

BAM! Reload, shoot:

There are many that cling to the "best of breed" myth. It's even funnier when you think about folks positioning their offerings as "integrated best of breed," whether it happens on the perimeter or on the devices. Or even in security management. Integration/unification and best of breed are opposites. Oil and water. You get the picture. It just doesn't happen.

Want some more?

without anything that is truly innovative (and it's been quite a while since we've seen true innovation in the security space), customers have no choice but to go with good enough. Most of the new companies out there are focused on "better, faster, cheaper" models of improving the way things are already done.

Quartier d'Eté : Concerts d'Antibalas

saad@docisland.org — 2008-08-05T11:50:15+02:00

Dans le cadre du festival parisien Quartier d’été, l’excellent groupe d’Afrobeat Antibalas effectue une série de 5 concerts dans des jardins de la capitale. Le premier a eu lieu hier au Parc de la Villette. Ce soir, ils seront au jardin Emile Gallé dans le 11ème et je compte y assister avec betabug, un bon ami swiss geek in athens tel qu’il se définit ;-) et en visite actuellement à Paris.

Antibalas est un de mes groupes Afrobeat préférés. Je les ai déjà vu se produire il y a quelques mois dans une salle à Massy (dans le 91) et j’avais passé un très bon moment. La musique est bien rythmée et votre corps peut se mettre à bouger de façon incontrôlable. Les cuivres sont bien présents et la batterie soutient joliment le tout.

Pour découvrir la Musique de cet excellent groupe, faites un tour sur leur site MySpace. Et voici quelques sympathiques titres sur Deezer :

El Machete
Musicaw Silt (Live)
Pay Back Africa
Pour terminer, vous pouvez consulter le programme complet du festival au format PDF.

Keepon, The Dancing Robot

saad@docisland.org — 2008-07-26T06:28:47+02:00

Lately, I started to feel a growing interest for Design and that’s how I “discovered” Ambidextrous. I am considering getting a subscription to this magazine. So I decided to sample a few articles. This is how I came to read Keepon Dancing, a very interesting article on Keepon, a nice little robot with social interaction abilities.

Notice how simple its seems.This extremely simplistic design is engaging as shown by research conducted with children. According to the article, written by one of the two Keepon developers, Keepon is able to direct attention around a room and express simple emotions through bodily movement.

Beatbots.org, the “official” website, features a number of videos showing Keepon in action. I should admit that I have been flabbergasted by the demos. I’ve also learned from the article that Keepon starred in a Spoon Music video. See it dancing to Don’t You Evah. According to a post in BoingBoing:
the robot (...) extracts extract the pulse of rhythm from music and move its silicone body in time.

Before you reach out for your credit card, I’d like to inform you that Keepon is not commercially available. Otherwise, the compulsive buyer in me would have tried to get one and conduct some social interaction experiments in the workplace :-)

Breakin'

saad@docisland.org — 2008-07-22T22:56:00+02:00

I moved recently to a new location with my little family. While preparing the boxes, I was surprised to find a dusty box full of magnetic Music tapes in my basement. I was like a little kid opening a gift holding big promises. It contained all the magnetic tapes I brought with when I left Morocco to come to study in France. At that time, my Sony Discman I used to have for a few years was completely broken so I took only my Sony Walkman, a few CDs and as much tapes as I could pack.

Many of them have special memories associated with them. The Al Corley original tape was a gift from a cousin of mine. I craved Square Rooms. You are not dreaming ;-) ... My Musical taste is eclectic, I told ya! I also found a ZZ Top Eliminator original tape. This one was a gift from my brother. It is so beaten up that I didn’t dare putting it in my Technics tape player. Dirty Dog was one of my favorite songs in the nineties. I remember very clearly that the tape broke several times and I had to ‘fix’ it using nail polish :-p

But the tape that I cherish the most is my very first one! Yes, I still have it. It’s a Sony CHF 60 minutes tape my brother bought for me in 1986, when I was a mere 12yo boy. It was recorded using Dolby (woot!) and contains the Breakin’ movie’s awesome soundtrack. At that time, Breakdancing was all hype in Morocco. I used to practice with some friends all the rather basic figures: Turtle, Back Spin, etc. And of course, the movie that was on everyone’s mouth and that every kid on the block was trying to copy moves from was Breakin’! (released as Breakdance: The Movie in Morocco). It features a very affable trio of dancers -Kelly, Ozone and Turbo-. Turbo moves was particularly spectacular to my kid’s eyes. I have extremely sharp memories of Turbo’s Broom Dance:

And here is the first battle:

Of course, things have changed over time but not necessarily for the best (heck, where are the power moves?!?):

Supertramp got it right. It was the best of all times ;-)

Sur Un Air de Funk Taylorien

saad@docisland.org — 2008-07-22T16:57:26+02:00

La semaine dernière, je suis allé boire un verre avec des amis au Baroudeur, un bar bien sympathique dans le 11ème à Paris (il est situé plus exactement au 1, rue Faidherbe). L’ambiance y était chaleureuse. Les enceintes diffusaient de la bonne musique, plutôt Jazzy. A un moment, un morceau de bon Funk se lance. Ca ressemblait beaucoup à une chanson de Soulive d’il y a quelques temps mais il manquait certains ingrédients habituellement utilisés par ce groupe, un je-ne-sais-quoi de différent.

Renseignements pris auprès du serveur qui est allé voir sur l’écran de l’iPod servant ce délicieux mets auditif, le cuisinier se nommait The James Taylor Quartet. De retour au bercail, je me mets à la quête du cuisinier dans le cyberverse (ça fait tout de suite j’étale ma science non ?) et je tombe sur une page de Wikipedia qui m’apprend que c’est un groupe Anglais formé par le sieur James Taylor qui officie au Hammond. Un bon nombre de leurs disques (tous ?) sont disponibles chez eMusic. J’ai pratiquement tout pré-écouté avant de télécharger un album de 2001 intitulé Message From The Godfather dont les sonorités ressemblaient beaucoup à ce que nous avions pu écouter au Baroudeur. Mes oreilles sont en ce moment entrain de se délecter de ce Jazz Funk classieux et efficace.

Voici quelques autres liens pour explorer l’oeuvre musicale de ce groupe très sympathique :

Traces Réseau et Pseudonymat

saad@docisland.org — 2008-07-21T09:32:46+02:00

Imaginons que vous deviez envoyer des dumps de trafic réseau à un partenaire/fournisseur/whatchmacallit et imaginons que vous avez besoin de nettoyer ces traces d'éléments identificateurs (oui parce que vous vous ennuyez et vous n'avez rien trouvé de mieux à faire de la journée à part faire votre paranoiaque de la sécurité). Et là, vous vous dites ... Mais comment faire ?

Il m’est arrivé plusieurs fois de me poser la question et à part prendre des traces en PCAP, les transformer en texte et utiliser ce cher sed parci-parlà, je n’avais jamais été plus loin.

Et voilà que PktAnon entre en scène. Cet outil hautement configurable (en XML, vous vous en doutiez car c’est la mode) permet de modifier un fichier de traces réseau au format PCAP afin de répondre à des exigences de pseudonymat (ou de paranoïa pour celles et ceux qui croient encore aux Bisounours).

PktAnon n’est pour l’instant toujours pas disponible en application tierce pré-packagée pour mes OS habituels (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Mac OS X). Je vais donc attendre un peu avant de le tester. Si vous avez de votre côté réalisé des tests, n’hésitez pas à me faire part de vos impressions.

Feel The Groove In The Air

saad@docisland.org — 2008-07-20T08:27:28+02:00

As a follow-up to my post on Avishai Cohen’s concert, I’d like to share with you on another awesome Jazz artist that also has this blending/generosity power in his Music. I am talking about Christophe Wallemme.

Like Avishai, he is a Jazz bassist/composer/arranger and has a very solid groove. Born in Paris in 1964, his 2006 record Namasté exemplifies the kind of Jazz that I particularly enjoy. That’s why I am planning on attending his October concert at the Sunside, another mythical Jazz venue.

The self-titled song Namasté is a groove summum. I will now step back and let your ears discover this song.

Christophe Wallemme - Namaste EPK

Useful links:

Avishai Smacked Me!

saad@docisland.org — 2008-07-19T01:50:23+02:00

It's Saturday 1:26 AM on this side of the not-so-green-anymore planet. I have just came back home. I was at a Jazz concert in Paris. And it was so amazing that I wanted to share my feelings with you right away, before heading to that so-longed-for bed of mine.

Avishai Cohen is one of the most innovative and amazing Jazz bassist and composer/arranger I know of. I heard first of him about 2 years ago in one of my favorite Jazz magazines (Jazzman). They reviewed his 2006 record, Continuo, and gave it very good ratings. As soon as I ripped it on my iTunes library, it was an instant hit and I was literally hooked. Since then, an awesome live CD/DVD (As Is... Live At The Blue Note) and a 2008 record (Gently Disturbed) finished convinced me (as if it was needed) that this is the guy. This is the kind of Music that speaks to my inner self. It represented all what I liked about Music: blending and generosity. Good Music has this particular trait that makes your emotions flowing and put your brain's right hemisphere into high gear mode.

When I learned that he was coming to Paris for a concert at the New Morning, one of the mythical Jazz venues in France, I didn't think much before getting a ticket. A single one. Usually, I ask friends/relatives if they want to come along. But I felt that I needed to live that "snapshot" alone, a communion.

The big day arrived. Friday 18th of July. I had one hell of a week. Physically and emotionally straining. At the end of the day, I was very tired and I doubted that I had enough fuel to go the concert. I don't know how but my feet pushed me forward. Toward the New Morning scene, toward Avishai Cohen and his sidekicks, drummer Mark Guiliana and pianist Shai Maestro.

I arrived there around 7:45 PM. The concert was supposed to start at 9:00 PM. There was already a line. I waited. I was tired. Really tired. Two guys were in front of me in that long line. They started talking about Jazz, Music and other topics I have a sharp interest in. So I jumped in with both feet. I felt that they are made of the same fabrics I was made from. They were generous and have a keen interest in Music. It was a very enjoyable talk. I didn't feel much the long time we waited before entering inside the New Morning. They opened the doors at 9:00 PM. We got good seats and waited for another 30 minutes before the Jazz trio came on the scene.

The words end here. I was completely flabbergasted by these three guys. I took several direct "hits" in the ears, so many of them actually that I don't think I've been to a so emotionally intensive concert in my whole life. They didn't give any warning before taking me from Tired Station to Heavy Energy Street in the blink of an eye. The "hits" were so strong that tears of utter joy kept visiting my cheeks now and then. I was smiling all the time, enthralled by that jaw dropping event. All three musicians were exceptional. But If I should give a "awesome achievement" award it will be to the drummer with no hesitation at all. At three occasions during the two sets they played, he really unleashed his creativity and performed something I've never seen/heard before. He took all the audience with him in a very enjoyable trip. He kind of gave us his hand and told us "follow me in uncharted territory, you'll enjoy the ride. I guarantee it". And we did and we enjoyed behind all description.

After two hours of fantastic Music, I had troubles getting back on my feet and heading home. I kept saying "unbelievable" and I knew that many other people felt the same way. They had that telltale look on their face.

It took me about 1h30min to get back home and here I am writing you. I am still kind of knocked out emotionally speaking.

If you want to try some Music samples, please visit http://www.myspace.com/avishaicohenmusic. Select 11Wives, sit back ... have a good and pleasant trip.

Keep the Music flowing. Let the emotions out. Check for yourselves that we humans can make truly beautiful "things".

Truly yours,

GNU/Linux Is Very Secure?

saad@docisland.org — 2008-05-06T15:40:29+02:00

Bana, a fellow DocIslander, told me about an IBM DeveloperWorks titled Anatomy of Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux). Bana pointed me to the following excerpt:

GNU/Linux is very secure, but it's also very dynamic: changes can appear that open holes into the operating system that can then be exploited. Although considerable attention is paid to preventing unauthorized access, what happens after an entry has occurred?

Good! Oh, hang on a sec. Don't you smell something really fishy in the first sentence? Let me me help you out a bit:

GNU/Linux is very secure, but it's also very dynamic...

I let my mind chew on these memes and I came to the conclusion that this basically boils down to saying something similar to the following:

Have no fear chap, you can sleep assured that no burglar will enter your house. Look at the door. It's made of bulletproof metal, 6 inch thick with 17 different locks, retina scan and ADN sampler. Oh, by the way, it's a very dynamic design that's why we are destroying the surrounding walls and rebuilding them from the ground up.

... And that's why we need something as mind-bogglingly complex as SELinux to secure the very secure.

Mystery Solved! How Swiss Hackers Really Look Like

saad@docisland.org — 2008-05-06T13:57:50+02:00

In the absence of some sound evidence, I always thought that Swiss hackers were a subgroup of hackers, which is a subgroup of human beings. My logical self led me then to believe that my friend Betabug and all his fellow Swiss hackers looked like your run-of-the-mill human beings! How mistaken I was!

Last week, I finally discovered some compelling evidence about how Swiss hackers really look like. I was in a supermarket when I stumbled upon a whole flock sitting silently (or so it seems). Look for yourself.

Oh and by the way, needless to say that I mean hacker as defined by the Jargon File.

Compte-rendu du FOSDEM 2008

saad@docisland.org — 2008-05-05T01:06:54+02:00

J'ai effectué un compte-rendu des conférences du FOSDEM 2008 axées autour de la sécurité informatique pour la Lettre Techniques De l'Ingénieur (Sécurité des Systèmes d'Information). Il a été publié dans le numéro 14 (Avril 2008).

Contrairement à l'édition précédente, il y a eu peu de présentations autour de la sécurité. Ce ne sont pas les orateurs ou les sujets qui manquent pourtant... Seules deux présentations ont su retenir mon attention : une présentation de SELinux dans CentOS et une présentation/démonstration de WebScarab-NG du projet OWASP.

Développement Sécurisé Dans La Lettre Techniques De l'Ingénieur

saad@docisland.org — 2008-05-05T00:45:44+02:00

J'ai assez récemment rédigé un article ayant pour sujet le développement sécurisé pour la Lettre Techniques De l'Ingénieur (Sécurité des Systèmes d'Information). Il a été publié dans le numéro 13 (Mars 2008). Intitulé Vers une approche pragmatique du développement sécurisé d'applications, il décrit 6 points destinés à ancrer la sécurité au sein d'un cycle de développement logiciel pour aboutir à un SDL (Secure Development Lifecycle).

Cette approche est très largement inspirée de l'approche proposée par Gary McGraw dans son excellent ouvrage Software Security dont je recommande la lecture à toute personne s'intéressant de près au développement sécurisé. Je me suis contenté de simplifier l'approche initialement proposée par ce dernier et de survoler les points d'ancrage afin de fournir une vue d'ensemble de l'approche et des étapes nécessaires pour la mettre en musique.

MISC 37 : A La Découverte de ModSecurity 2

saad@docisland.org — 2008-05-05T00:23:12+02:00

Le numéro 37 (mai/juin 2008) du magazine MISC vient de paraître. Si vous y êtes abonné, vous avez du recevoir ce numéro dans votre boîte aux lettres sinon vous le trouverez très prochainement en kiosque. Vous retrouverez page 60 un article intitulé A la découverte de ModSecurity 2, que j'ai co-écrit avec mon collègue et ami de longue date Jérôme Léonard. J'ai pris beaucoup de plaisir à travailler avec quelqu'un dont je partage certaines convictions et une vision similaire de la sécurité informatique.

Comme son titre l'indique, nous vous proposons de découvrir à travers cette fiche technique le pare-feu applicatif ModSecurity 2 (que je m'étais promis d'essayer) en quelques pages. Nous y décrivons les fonctionnalités principales de la version 2 de ce produit destiné à augmenter le niveau de sécurité de vos applications Web. Et comme d'habitude, vous y retrouverez quelques petites notes d'humour destinées à rendre votre lecture plus agréable sans oublier de vous fournir les informations essentielles vous permettant de décider de l'éventuelle adéquation de ce produit par rapport à vos besoins.

Nous penchons du côté de l'approche par liste noire (interdire les URLs suspicieuses) qui nous paraît plus pragmatique et plus adaptée à la complexité des applications Web actuelles. Je n'en dirais pas plus ! Je vous invite à lire l'article et à nous soumettre vos commentaires et vos questions par email ou en utilisant le système de commentaires de ce blog. Votre retour est précieux et nous permet d'améliorer la qualité de notre travail.

NPR: Dee Dee Bridgewater's Red Earth in Concert

saad@docisland.org — 2008-05-03T06:57:56+02:00

Dee Dee Bridgewater is a cheerful, affable artist with a very interesting voice. During the years, I've sampled some of her songs (mainly Jazz) but I was not really hooked... until the release of Red Earth, her latest album that she recorded in Mali, Africa. She decided to go there seeking her African ancestry and I think she found it, at least musically speaking.

Mali is a an amazing and vibrant Music haven in West Africa. That's the country where some of my favorite African artists live such as the excellent Toumani Diabaté, Ballaké Cissoko, or Salif Keita to cite just a few. Mali is also the country where Ali Farka Touré was born and died.

Featuring Kora (my favorite Music instrument), Balafon and other traditional African Music instruments as well as a masterfully played Piano (by no less than Edsel Gomez who's Cubist Music was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2007), Red Earth is a very interesting album that I particularly enjoyed listening to.

I was pleased to see it featured on NPR which streams a Dee Dee Bridgewater's concert performed in Washington D.C. Treat your ears to this excellent Music! I particularly recommend the second part (seek the Listen to Part 2 link).

Smoothie Recipe: Lava 1.0

saad@docisland.org — 2008-04-27T13:36:36+02:00

One of my coworkers, a wonderful person that I really care for and consider a friend in the true sense, got me a little present for my birthday; a book on smoothies. A smoothie is a blended and sweet beverage made from fresh fruit. An urban legend pretends that there is no smoothie without milk or yogurt. Ain't true Ma'm!

I decided to give it a shot this week-end during the visit of nobz, a DocIsland fellow, and his family.

I started with a smoothie called Breakfast Bracer (mango, banana and grapefruit, two each) which was really good. I followed the recipe almost faithfully. I just added a bit of cinnamon to the mix. And then my embryonic cuisine creativity gears kicked in and I decided to experiment. After two interations, I "created" Lava 1.0. The recipe is pretty simple and you can do it even if your cuisine skills are near or below zero.

For 1 liter of Lava smoothie juice, you need the following ingredients:

500gr of strawberry
125gr of raspberry
3 bananas
7 juicy oranges (with 2 blood oranges if possible)

Wash everything (save for the bananas of course), cut the strawberries and the bananas in small pieces, cut the oranges in 8 parts. For each part, remove the pips if any and the attached skin on the inside. Take a sharp, small knife and separate the part from the external skin. Make sure there is no skin attached to the external surface of the orange part. Throw everything in a blender. You don't need to add sugar or whatever, Just make sure you select premium fruits. Put in the fridge for half an hour, or if you want to save as much vitamins as possible, add ice and you are done!

I called this smoothie Lava as a tribute to the coworker who got me the book that sparked the creativity gears. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did and if you have any suggestions for enhancements (that's why there is a version number attached to the smoothie recipe's name) please let me know.

What's The Story Behind The Bookstore?

saad@docisland.org — 2008-04-24T16:21:53+02:00

One of my favorite activities consists of walking in Paris streets. I've been living in the area for almost ten years and Paris still amazes me. It's kind of a love'n'hate story between us. Far more love than hate though. And after all these years, Paris still have some Love cards up her sleeves that just make me happy.

I often wander in streets I've never been to before or just walked their pavement in a hurry, not really taking the time to see what beauty (or ugliness) they may have in store for me. Yesterday, I went to L'escale Pakito, a wonderful little pub to have a few drinks with close friends. I arrived quite early so I took the opportunity to wander around a bit. And there I found that kind of beauty I particularly enjoy. I took a picture to share it with you.

I was simply amazed by this street intersection, with that majestuous building in the background (the sunlit one) and more importantly by L'escalier (the staircase), an old looking bookstore that seems to support the whole building of which it occupies an angle; worn out by the cheer weight of the whole structure. It also made me wonder what's the story behind that shop? Who was its first owner? How did it evolve during all these years? How does it manage to survive in this time and age of cybergiants such as Amazon? What kind of books are sold there? Who chose the paint? Did a relative of mine ever visited or bought something from this shop in the seventies or eighties (one uncle, one brother-in-law, and the husband of one cousin dwelled in Paris for a few years at that time)? So many questions! All participating to the mistery of the bookstore from which sprung, I guess, the beauty I felt when looking at this scene.

I left them unanswered since all this very subjective beauty may simply evaporate with the answers. Of course, if you happen to know some of them please share them with us!

Sun Is Shining, The Weather Is (About) Sweet

saad@docisland.org — 2008-04-24T13:59:16+02:00

I was longing for a sunny, sweet day in the otherwise gloomy, grey-skeyed, coldish Paris. Heck, this is Spring or so they said on TV (and of course, you do believe whatever they say right?). Nuff' talk. See for yourself if you don't believe me. Picture shot this morning when going to work. This is Boulevard Haussmann if you care. The picture was taken by a cheap camera embodied in a far-from-cheap phone.

Oh, and as any other cheap wannabe open-minded, cool Parisian, I usually take the Velib' (an almost free bike service in Paris) for 10 minutes or so to go from Chatelet to work. My path takes me through Avenue de l'Opera where I can see the beautiful Opera in all its majesty shining when Sun is not slacking.

Just a small dose of this miraculous Sun makes me wanna grow wings and fly over to it like Icarus. The only thing that is preventing me from doing so is that very small, insignificant hurdle called Evolution. Damn ! Darwin, why did you have to provide such a theory? It would have been far easier if we were ruled by Creationism (or even its reduced-price version, Intelligent Design). I'd just pray the Flying Spaghetti Monster and I'd grow some hypish Pastafarian wings in no time. Damn Damn Damn.

Jazz Song Review: Kalimba Suite by Bobby McFerrin [5/5]

saad@docisland.org — 2008-03-12T22:50:39+01:00

[Jazz] Kalimba Suite by Bobby McFerrin
From the album Beyond Words.

Bobby McFerrin is one of my favorite artists. I highly regard his amazing voice and incredible musicality. He is a frequent guest of my iPod playlists and I often listen to his records when I need to relax, be it for sleep, for work or just for kicks. Circlesongs, released in 1997, is so far my favorite album. But I have a feeling that Beyond Words -released in 2002 and the subject of this post- might replace it.

Two weeks ago, I had a cursory glance at some online music news (which I have a hard time recollecting what kind of site it was) when I saw Bobby's name cited. So I decided to have a look at Amazon.fr and see if I can find an El Cheapo (as in price, not as in Music of course) record of the Man that I don't own. That's how I first heard about Beyond Words and also that one of the guests invited by Bobby McFerrin was Richard Bona, an amazing African bassist with a very nice voice of his own. As for the El Cheapo condition, I ordered it through Market Place (from Import CD Specialist if you care, they have top service and I ordered quite numerous times from them with no troubles so far).

When I got back from work today, the CD was waiting for me in the mailbox. After minding the kids, getting dinner and helping my dear half with housework, I ripped the CD, put on my headphones and hit the Play button. In a instant, I was travelling to Music land. I looped through the whole record once and on the second iteration, I realized how Kalimba Suite stands out. It's like being in a wonderful garden full of amazing flowers and when you go through the whole thing your preattentive processing kicks in and you realize that one particular flower stands out.

Kalimba Suite is truly exceptional. Mind you, it's a 2-in-1 song. Around 2 minutes of playing this 3:40 song, the tone changes and a synthetizer kicks in (which somehow reminded me of Tom Grant's 1990 record Edge Of The World) with a weird reverb effect. Surprising at first, it just flows nicely afterwards without really breaking the magic initiated by the first 2 minutes. And just to add to the joy I felt, the bassist is of course Mr. Bona!

Beyond Words is a very nice record that you can get with your eyes closed (and listen to with eyes closed as well to maximize the happiness).

I truly thank you Bobby for your excellent Music. Keep up the excellent job!

Meta information:

Rating: 5/5
Label: Blue Note
Release year: 2002
Related Artists: None, absolutely None!

Extra links:

Bobby McFerrin's official website
Listen to Kalimba Suite (full-length, not so bad quality) on Deezer
An awesome improvisation featuring Bobby McFerrin and Richard Bona from your friendly YouTube

Slides De La Présentation OpenSSH Disponibles

saad@docisland.org — 2008-03-12T06:53:31+01:00

Tel que précisé dans un autre billet, j'ai effectué une présentation sur des nouveautés d'OpenSSH (directives Match et ChrootDirectory principalement) et un tour d'horizon de quelques principes de durcissement présents dans des documents de durcissement de ce logiciel et généralement rédigés par des maîtrises d'ouvrage ou d'oeuvre mais dont l'applicabilité est improbable.

Pour vous donner un exemple, prenons les clés d'authentification. Il est généralement de bon ton de demander l'abandon pur et simple de l'authentification par mots de passe et de passer à une authentification par clés. Mais c'est beaucoup plus simple à dire qu'à faire. Comment gérer leur génération (est-ce qu'il y a bien une passphrase, la passphrase choisie est bien conforme à la politique de sécurité en vigueur) ? Leur diffusion, leur mise à jour (notamment de la passphrase avec une modification tous les N jours pour rester conforme à la politique de sécurité), ....

Les outils et les contrôles traditionnellement utilisés pour aider à générer des mots de passe de qualité et de contrôler cette dite qualité dans le temps etc. ne sont pas utilisables tels quels pour les passphrases des clés ou pour les clés elles-même.

Les clés facilitent énormément la vie (pensez ssh-add/ssh-agent), on en génère seulement quelques unes au plus si on est "pragmatique" et on en change très rarement voire jamais la passphrase. Mais est-ce pour autant un problème de sécurité ? Ce n'est pas plutôt à la politique de sécurité de savoir gérer des exceptions ? J'ai pointé le problème du doigt, je vous laisse réfléchir à toutes ses facettes.

En attendant, vous pourrez télécharger les slides au format PDF à l'adresse suivante : http://saad.docisland.org/docs/files/openssh-nah-sur20080311.pdf.

Edité pour ajouter : le lien de téléchargement affichait le nom d'une autre présentation, bien qu'il pointait là où il fallait. C'est désormais corrigé. Merci à Nicolas Legrand pour avoir relevé la coquille.

Pictures From DocIsland Dinner At Chez Max

saad@docisland.org — 2008-03-10T07:07:16+01:00

In February, 12th, 2008, many DocIsland members got together for a dinner at Chez Max, a correct restaurant located in Les Halles in downtown Paris. LVDTime, a founding member of DocIsland, came over from Nice where he lives to Paris and we took this opportunity to organize a dinner. The restaurant was suggested by bana who got dinner there a few times before.

LVDTime made some nice shots that I have finally cleaned up a bit and published on the DocIsland Pictures section. Better late than never or so they say!

We got a few drinks at Le Sous Bock Tavern, a traditional geek beer venue located a few meters away from the restaurant.

Blues Song Review: Hold On by Eric Bibb [5/5]

saad@docisland.org — 2008-03-08T07:24:30+01:00

[Blues] Hold On by Eric Bibb
From the album Spirit I Am.

The first time I heard about Eric Bibb was back in 2003. I went to a FNAC store in downtown Paris and asked the guy at the Jazz/Blues section if he can advise artists similar to Keb' Mo'. I recall very clearly how bright his face went and he answered with a smile, handing Eric Bibb's Natural Light record. I bought it without any further question or comment and when I was back home, I put it in the CD player and I enjoyed it a lot. Since then, I am keeping a close eye on that artist. He has a great sense of Blues and uses elements of Folk and Soul as well.

Spirit I Am is his latest release. Published by DixieFrog Records in France, it is a double-album. The first is the "official" album (Get On Board) and the second (Field Recordings) is a France-only release. Field Recordings is a traditional Blues record. And my favorite song is Hold On, the fifth track of this album. Featuring Eric's warm and very soothing voice with an acoustic guitar, it instantly touched my soul. This is what I call a wonderful song. The other songs of Field Recordings and Get On Board are very good.

When I buy an album, I rip it (if it's a soft/hard shell CD) or convert it (if it's an eMusic MP3 album) into AAC using iTunes. And I usually listen to it using my Sennheiser PX200 headphones. When I received Spirit I Am, I got Omar Sosa's Afreecanos as well and a CD Sampler from Vibrations. I started by ripping Afreecanos first, then Spirit I Am and I finished with the CD Sampler. When I started listening to Hold On, my eyes fell on the Cover Flow part of iTunes' display. I took the following screenshot, which speaks for itself and for my emotions:

Meta information:

Rating: 5/5
Label: DixieFrog Records
Release year: 2008
Related Artists: Keb' Mo'

Extra links:

Eric Bibb's Official Website
I Heard The Angels Singing (YouTube Video Of A Live Performance of Eric Bibb)

Nouveautés d'OpenSSH Et Quelques Principes De Durcissement Au Groupe SUR

saad@docisland.org — 2008-03-08T06:27:12+01:00

La prochaine réunion du groupe SUR aura lieu le mardi 11 mars. J'y présenterais en seconde partie de réunion les nouveautés d'OpenSSH et quelques principes de durcissement à appliquer pour augmenter le niveau de sécurité de cet outil ô combien essentiel de nos jours.

En ce qui concerne les nouveautés, je parlerais principalement des nouvelles directives de chroot en natif (et par utilisateur) ainsi que des directives Match.

Les réunions du groupe SUR étant gratuites et d'entrée libre, je vous invite à y participer. Et si vous avez des idées de présentation ou des salles à nous proposer, n'hésitez pas à me contacter.

Slides De La Présentation de Jail (Solutions Linux 2008)

saad@docisland.org — 2008-02-02T18:39:00+01:00

Tel que je l'avais indiqué dans le billet OpenBSD, FreeBSD et Solutions Linux 2008, j'ai effectué une présentation de la fonctionnalité jail de FreeBSD le mercredi 30 janvier matin. C'est une mise à jour de la présentation précédemment effectuée en 2006 dans le cadre du groupe SUR de l'OSSIR.

Vous pouvez consulter les slides au format PDF : http://saad.docisland.org/docs/files/sl2008-jail.pdf.

Solutions Linux 2008 Pictures Posted

saad@docisland.org — 2008-02-01T23:16:06+01:00

Solutions Linux 2008 was a wonderful edition. Save for a few hours on the 2nd day (during which I gave a talk on FreeBSD's jail), I was at the OpenBSD booth with the gang. Besides the usual suspects (Wim Vandeputte, Marc Espie, and Miod Vallat), many other French OpenBSD developers showed up: Antoine Jacoutot (the so-called TagDiff'er), Gilles Chehade, Landry Breuil, and Charles Longeau. Eric Faurot, Wim's Friend, was also there. Last but not least, I had the pleasure to finally meet Wim' girlfriend (Machtelt, you rock!). Their help was very welcome since we had many visitors during those three days. Every evening, after closing the booth we went downtown to have a drink and some awesome dinners. The first night, we went to Les Galopins in Bastille. The next to Chez Denise, La Tour De Montlhéry and the last one to Hokkaido, a wonderful Japanese restaurant that I "bookmarked" (thanks Marc!).

GCU Squad made an impressive show and I had a very nice chat with the guys of RubyFrance, I also met some old acquaintances I haven't seen in eons. I am pretty tired after all this but I don't regret it at all.

If you'd like to see the OpenBSD gang soon, come to Brussels for FOSDEM! In the meantime, check out the pictures.

Ditch The Camera, Your Phone Roxx!

saad@docisland.org — 2008-01-22T08:41:55+01:00

My friend betabug posted a nice review of a camera he recently bought from a department store (yes! your eyes are just fine...). He used to be a photographer and I guess he knows what he is talking about as much as a Polish plumber knows what a waterpipe is.

Before getting this camera, betabug used to take pictures with his phone. wildweasel, a fellow OpenBSD developer and a friend of both of us, used to complain about the "sucky" nature of those pictures, as betabug clearly states in his review:

but since wildweasel has burned a hole in my ears whining about my lousy phone camera pix, I had a look at the digicams.

Well, truth is ... I prefer the "sucky" phone pictures or more exactly the Photoshopped ones!

Here is a picture shot by the new camera:

Well, it's ... normal.

And here is a picture shot by the phone: (and photoshopped)

And another one:

Feel the strange, hazy, verging on the eery atmosphere of these pictures? It's like they have been shot in another space-time continuum. Give betabug a crappy phone camera, he'll produce true art (I really like those pictures a lot), give him a digicam he'll turn into your normal guy taking normal pictures in a normal World.

Phone pictures produce real emotions to their viewer. wildweasel hates them, I love them. The new camera pictures produce almost none, save for a *yawn* ;-)

Do you want betabug's phone-shot pictures back? Then sign the online petition I set up. The more signatures, the better.

You Can Rate Stories On My Blog Now...

saad@docisland.org — 2008-01-22T08:28:08+01:00

I've noticed this morning that Haloscan offers the possibility of rating blog posts. I don't know if it's really useful at this time, maybe it allow me to quickly spot the kind of posts that you like more. Anyway, I activated the feature and you can now rate my blog posts, past, present or future. To do that, simply select the number of stars (on a scale of 5) and that's it.

Note that you need Javascript activated on your browser if you want to use this functionality. Moreover, if you have a FireFox filtering extension such as NoScript, you may need to temporarily or permanently allow Haloscan.

I will let this functionality activated on my blog for a few weeks/months to assess its usefulness. If proven completely useless, I will turn it off.

OpenBSD, FreeBSD Et Solutions Linux 2008

saad@docisland.org — 2008-01-19T23:22:17+01:00

Je serais cette année sur le stand du projet OpenBSD à Solutions Linux 2008, salon dédié (si on peut dire) au monde du logiciel libre. J'ai prévu d'y être durant toute la durée de l'événement, soit du 29 au 31 janvier inclus. Le stand sera tenu par votre serviteur ainsi que de nombreux autres membres du projet tels que Wim et Marc Espie. Venez donc nous rendre visite et nous faire part de vos idées, questions et commentaires concernant notre projet.

En principe, je m'absenterais le mercredi 30 janvier matin car je ferais une présentation intitulée Virtualisation et sécurité avec jail dans le track Sécurité des conférences payantes. Lors de cette présentation, je couvrirais la fonctionnalité jail du système d'exploitation FreeBSD et les nouveautés introduites par la version 7.0 de cet OS (qui est en RC1 à l'heure où j'écris ces lignes).

En tant qu'intervenant, j'ai la possibilité d'inviter deux personnes à cette présentation payante. Si vous lisez ce billet et que vous souhaitez assister à ma présentation gratuitement, je vous prie de m'envoyer un courriel à mon adresse email (que vous trouverez derrière le hyperlien Contact de la présente page). Les premiers arrivés seront les premiers servis.

Power/Nordic Walking Shoes Review: New Balance 1091 [5/5]

saad@docisland.org — 2008-01-14T11:21:52+01:00

I had a knee surgery in March 2007 due to a damaged meniscus. Before that I used to play Basket-Ball quite extensively and when my left knee started hurting me, I converted to Running. Looking backwards, this proved a very silly move. Though I enjoyed Running a lot, it has only made the problem worse until I couldn't run without feeling a strong pain in the knee. My surgeon made me stop by the end of 2003.

By June 2007, I felt ready to go back the way of Sports and Health in general. But Running was not really an option. So I converted to Power Walking, Nordic Walking and Swimming. It proved to be an excellent combination. I will give you a more detailed account on an upcoming post to this blog.

Being an ex-runner, I knew that shoes were paramount and I didn't want to feel joint pain anymore. So I decided to put as much money as required for the sake of comfort and painless effort. I bought a pair of New Balance 1091 Nordic Walking shoes.

First, let me answer the question "Why New Balance and not an another brand?". At the time I used to practice Running, Asics was my Church. I worn off many pairs and I was satisfied overall. I looked for Walking shoes from Asics and they weren't many. But NB has a lot of models to choose from. My mom and my brother who are seasoned Walkers also told me all the good things their feet think of NB shoes. One of my coworkers, a Marathoner, who tried both brands told be that NB was excellent for his activity but less solid on the long term than Asics.

I started my "path" with a basic NB model (I can't recall the model exactly at this time and they are out of my reach in the basement). I was amazed how much comfort I got for a so low a price (I bought them for less than 30 EUR). But after a 45 mins session, my feet were sore. They were also a bit awkward to walk with at a reasonable speed. So I went to Au Vieux Campeur and bought the NB 1091.

These shoes are pretty expensive. At least when I got them (131 EUR). They now sell at half that price. But even with this hefty price tag, they proved excellent. Weighting approx. 425 g, they are heavy but you get an amazing stability and cushioning. My feet never felt sore with these shoes. And I can walk for more than 2 hours at very interesting speeds (8.7 Km/h Power Walking) with no problem. The upper fabric is made of Gore-Tex®. At first, I was afraid this might be problematic in hot/mild temperatures. But hey, it wasn't ... well almost. The fabric is breathable enough to be able to practice your favorite Sports in all weather. The only serious problem I had with it is its initial rigidity. I had problems for bending correctly my feet during the effort but after 5 sessions, the rigidity was not a problem anymore. Of course, the Gore-Tex® proved very efficient during my Power/Nordic Walking sessions under a rainy sky. This happens rather often in Paris. And I had quite a number of 1.5h+ sessions under a heavy rain during which my feet were kept perfectly dry. The Strike Path technology participates a lot in stabilizing the foot during the Walking gait cycle.

After more than 7 months of using the NB 1091 extensively two to four times a week, they started to be worn off. The Gore-Tex® fabric has broken a bit on the sides where it connect to the Toe Protect band and I decided to get two new pairs of NB shoes which I will review after a few months of usage.

If you are looking for excellent shoes for Power/Nordic Walking in all weather conditions even for extensive periods and you don't mind paying a Premium, look no further ... The NB 1091 are simply amazing!

Afrobeat Song Review: Insurrection by The Souljazz Orchestra [5/5]

saad@docisland.org — 2008-01-08T21:26:57+01:00

[Afrobeat] Insurrection by The Souljazz Orchestra
From the album Freedom Go No Die.

I discovered this band a few weeks earlier thanks to Radio Nova, a radio I listened quite often. And I had quite a hard time finding the album in France. As a last resort, I got it from iTunes Store.

I've never heard something as innovative in the Afrobeat landscape as Insurrection, save for Antibalas. It has a very Funky tone made of an elaborate intertwinement of African and Occidental Drums with warm Saxophones. The Musical genre created by Fela Kuti is alive and kicking! Freedom Go No Die features other excellent songs such as Mista President and The Blind Leading The Blind. While these songs are very solid and serious Afrobeat, they didn't sound as new and challenging wrt to the Afrobeat sound I am used to hear elsewhere as Insurrection. My buying advice? get a look at the rating, you don't need me to tell you that you can get this one without further thinking. And if you don't like the Music, maybe you can't resist the beauty of the cover art which I just find awesome!

Meta information:

Rating: 5/5
Label: Do Right!
Release year: 2006
Related Artists: Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, Antibalas, The Souljazz Orchestra, Nicole Willis and The Soul Investigators, Kokolo, Akoya, Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, Budos Band, Nomo

Extra links:

Slides Et Compte-Rendu Détaillé De La Conférence Hack.lu 2007

saad@docisland.org — 2008-01-08T21:15:09+01:00

J'ai assisté à la conférence Hack.lu 2007 au Grand Duché du Luxembourg en décembre dernier avec mon collègue et ami Jérôme Léonard. HAPSIS, notre employeur, nous a permis d'y participer et l'OSSIR nous a sponsorisé pour une partie des frais engagés pour le déplacement. A cet effet, nous avons présenté un compte-rendu de cette sympathique conférence sécurité lors de la réunion du groupe SUR du mardi 08 janvier 2008. Les slides de la présentation sont disponibles en ligne sur le site de l'OSSIR. Vous y trouverez aussi un compte-rendu détaillé de l'événement. Je vous en recommande vivement la lecture.

Je tiens encore à remercier HAPSIS et l'OSSIR.

A Little Story Of Japan, A Moroccan And Tea

saad@docisland.org — 2008-01-08T09:38:13+01:00

In 1998, I went to work in Japan for a 6 months period. It was my first real job in the computer industry. A year earlier, I was fresh out of the Engineering School (Ecole Mohammedia d'Ingénieurs, Rabat, Morocco). I sent a truckload of resumes to the local companies and landed an interview at The Casablanca Stock Exchange's IT department. I arrived there pretty early and the receptionist made me sit in a corner. I can't remember exactly how long I waited. But I am sure it was more than 45 minutes. You can imagine my frustration and it only got worse after the manager I had the interview with came down and took me to his office. He asked questions that didn't really make sense while answering many phone calls and reading the newspaper! I felt humiliated. This was more than enough for me to start looking actively for a way to escape the Moroccan "professional" World.

Was it my ka or something else when my long-time friend Fayçal came back to Morocco that summer? He has just finished his Engineering studies in Lyon, France. And he told me about his plans to study business. He happened to have a spare subscription form set for I.A.E. Poitiers, France. The interesting thing about that school was their strong relationships with Asia and Japan specifically. My father was often talking about the Japanese intelligence, the Japanese innovations, the Japanese processes... He had great respect for these people while not meeting one in his whole life. It was the challenge I needed. I wanted to check for myself. Are they more intelligent than anybody else on this Planet? If so, are there any obvious factors to learn from?

Subscribe. Go to France. Pass exam. Come back to Morocco. Gather what's needed for the travel. Go back to France. Study. Land a traineeship at Towa Elex Co. LTD, Tokyo, Japan.

In April 1998, I took the plane to Tokyo. I won't delve into how much of a shock I had, mainly due to the cultural differences. It felt like landing in an Alien planet, full of borgs (joking here to illustrate the shock's force. Nothing to do with how I really do feel about the Japanese) with different customs, different public transportation system ... and different everything! Well, I'll stop short here before starting to write uncontrollably about how much of an experience it was.

But i'd like to tell you one thing. It's about Tea. The very first cup of Tea I was offered there, as a sign of hospitality (or so I guessed), was a green sort that tasted...terrible! I made myself drink it not to offend my host. While I was used to drink Tea on a regular basis, it was the Green Powder Chinese sort that you can find everywhere in Morocco, used as a basis for the sugar-heavy Mint Tea. The Japanese Tea I was offered had no sugar, felt salty and had that my-hair-stands-straight-on-my-head taste of Algae. My goodness! What did I do to deserve this?

Adapt. I strongly wanted to adapt to this weird environment. And if it takes drinking some badly tasting fluid they called tea, so be it! More cups of it when down my throat without causing nausea or sudden death. I adapted to it but without really enjoying it. My mind simply started ignoring its taste.

A few years later, back to France, I surprised myself when ordering some at Japanese restaurants in Paris. I surprised myself even more when I started really enjoying it (and yeah, I even stopped drinking Mint Tea with sugar, it's all natural sugar-free now). I adapted to it very well, as I did for a whole range of food and drinks. The algae taste is not a problem anymore, quite the contrary.

Oh! By the way while I am writing this post I am drinking a wonderful cup of Sencha Fukuyu, the Tea I used to hate ;-). Kanpai!

Afrobeat Song Review: Musicawa Silt by The Daktaris [5/5]

saad@docisland.org — 2008-01-08T01:11:29+01:00

[Afrobeat] Musicawa Silt by The Daktaris
From the album Soul Explosion.

Musicawa Silt is an excellent Afrobeat/Funk piece. I stumbled upon this 1998 album by chance while browsing pretty much at random eMusic's collection. At first, I didn't believe what I heard. This is exactly the kind of Music I am currently looking for and enjoying. It sounds a lot like Fela Kuti's material with a more Funky tone to it. As always, I often listen to this kind of superb Music with closed eyes (not when I cross the streets of course) because it has that mysterious power to transport me into the comfy realms of my imagination. The Daktaris give me just the right mix of Afrobeat alchemy to lead me to believe I am back to the seventies, a time period I didn't know for real ( I was born in 1974) and the only "solid" references I have about it is from the movies I watched, mainly blaxploitation. Transcendental Music is excellent Music. And that's it. Wanna do your ears a favor? Get Musicawa Silt. Oh and you know what? Get Soul Explosion and travel back in time for about 40 mins. For a time machine, it's quite a bargain.

Meta information:

Rating: 5/5
Label: Desco Records
Release year: 1998
Related Artists: Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings, Antibalas, The Souljazz Orchestra, Nicole Willis and The Soul Investigators, Kokolo, Akoya, Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, Budos Band

Extra links:

The Daktaris at Myspace
Full-length song (FREE) from tighttunes.com

Happy New Year 2008... Any Good Resolutions?

saad@docisland.org — 2008-01-08T00:44:04+01:00

Well, it's this time again! I'd like to wish you an excellent year 2008 full of every good thing your heart may desire.

And it's about time I come up with new resolutions for this year. But first let us take a quick look at my last year's resolutions.

Well, if you've read my HNY entry from last year, you knew that I made three resolutions:

Give more love to the people I cherish and care for.
Practice sport seriously and lose (many) extra kilos I've been carrying for too long.
Get a driver license.

As for the first resolution, there is no "scientific" method I can measure with if it's a success or a failure. But from what I see, I consider it done. Don't get me wrong. It doesn't mean I gave a certain "quantity" of love to my loved ones and I'll just stop there. No way! I am always looking forward to give as much love and care to them as I can. And I will make sure I stick with it. Basically, this is now kind of an implicit resolution on the very very long-term until my body hits its grave.

What about the second one? Glad you asked (*cough*), this is one of the areas where I obtained awesome results. I went down from about 89 Kg to barely 74. There is almost no diet involved, besides avoiding eating between meals. The real reason is sports! I have a damaged meniscus that required surgery and this gave me enough of a kick to start on the right path. I regularly practice Power Walking, Nordic Walking and Swimming. I will give you more details about this on a later post.

As for the third one, I didn't make any progress. It's a total failure. This makes me rather sad but now ... it's my top priority for 2008!

I know you can no longer wait ;-) ... So here are Saad's Resolutions 2008:

Get a driver license. (déjà vu ?)
Re-engineer my "career". The idea behind this is very simple but requires heavy thinking to correctly implement. I need to isolate my top skill weaknesses and make them strengths. The goal here is to seek a better overall equilibrium in my skills as an infosec consultant.
Learn Spanish. I currently speak three langages.

As always, three resolutions are more than enough to keep me busy a full year, besides my other duties.

The Reading Corner: The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

saad@docisland.org — 2008-01-11T11:24:56+01:00

The Shock Doctrine : The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

A few months ago, a coworker of mine highly recommended The Shock Doctrine, the new book of Naomi Klein, a famous journalist known (to me at least) for her excellent investigation of the brand (as in Nike) World that she transcribed in No Logo, a very interesting piece. So I ordered the book and I started reading it as soon as I received it. I read it from cover to cover. Slowly. Going through the shock therapy Naomi has in store for her readers. Digesting all the arguments, theories and historical facts. Does Capitalism profits from Disasters? If so, how? Are there any recipes for the successful Disaster entrepreneur? Can an organization creates havoc for the sake of shareholders' satisfaction? Though highly controversial, the book is backed with very solid arguments and the conclusions are very sound. Naomi's words went down to my bowels and made me feel sick, disoriented and shocked. Some things are stated over and over ad nauseam. But I think this is necessary to make the reader grasp all the implications of such unbelievable revelations and hypothesis.

This is one of the best books I read in 2007 and maybe in the last decade or so. The author has some cool stuff about the book on her website. Make sure to check them out before clicking on that order button.